A/N: Sorry its been so long! Here's the second chapter!

o0o0o0

Prowl glared at the sheepish mech sitting in front of him. Bluestreak, who was doing his best to melt into the floor, had come to Prowl's office upon the second-in-command's request. The sniper knew he was in big trouble, Prowl didn't even have to say a word. Disappointment seemed to radiate from the other Praxian who was standing behind the large desk. They had been like this for a while now, Prowl seemingly trying to bore holes into Blue's plating with his icy optics, doorwings hitched up and stiff. Every second Blue could feel his drooping lower in a sign of "I'm sorry". Blue couldn't take much more of this silent treatment any longer, it was too quiet, he needed to say something, anything, just to break the suffocating stillness of the air. Mercifully the door to Prowl's office slid open before Blue could open his mouth. Expecting to see Jazz strolling in, the young mech swivelled round in his chair to greet the third-in-command, only to be faced with Smokescreen.

Oh no, Blue panicked, It's one of those meetings, ah Primus I really screwed up.

Smokescreen nodded in greeting to the youngster as he made his way to Prowl's side. Oh why couldn't they have left him to scrubbing the brig?

"Now Smokescreen has arrived we can begin" Prowl said coolly. Blue did his best to sink further into his chair, he really didn't want to be here, he really didn't want to talk about this. "Bluestreak it has been bought to my attention that assaulted a fellow Autobot earlier, and as far as anyone can tell it was completely unprovoked"

Oh Primus, oh Primus, Oh Primus, how was he ever going to explain this?

"And as consequence to your actions we have had to pull the plug on a very time sensitive surveillance mission the Aeiralbots were due to depart for at nightfall because Ratchet needs to fix Silverbolt." Oh it just kept getting worse! "Care to explain why you felt the need to remove one of our very few fliers from active duty?" Prowl finally asked, fixing Blue with a hard stare that could peel the paint off Unicron. It was the kind of stare that made you want to confess to anything just to make it stop. The sniper sucked in the chilled air before heavily venting it out.

Well here goes nothing, he said to himself.

"I screwed up Prowl, I know I did! I just can't explain it in a way that makes sense! I was in the rec room with Sunny and Sides – you know how I always have my first ration with them when we are on the same shift rotation – which they always are unless on punishment duty – anyway – so I was having my morning ration with them in the rec room when the Aerialbots walked in and sat at the table behind us – not that Sunny or Sides noticed! Sunny was too busy –"

"Just get to the point Bluestreak" Prowl interrupted, "Just tell me exactly what happened between you and Silverbolt"

Blue looked down at his hands, running his fingertips over the still damaged knuckles, trying to find the right words. Why was this so hard?

"He was trying to find an alternative route as the current flight plan involved going over mountains and he didn't want to fly at an altitude high enough to avoid all the winds and I just.." he trailed off, not looking up at the other mechs, "I just got so angry out of nowhere, how can a flyer be afraid of flying at high altitude… that's one of the best parts." He finished, doorwings completely sagged, still looking down at his lap. He was ashamed he had lost it like that.

Prowl simply nodded, he had suspected that was the reason.

"Bluestreak look at me" he said calmly as he sat down, resting his clasped hands on the desk between them, once Blue met his optics his continued. "Silverbolt may have his fears but he has never let them get in the way of his duties, he is one of the best flyers the Autobots have."

Blue huffed, flicking his optics between Smokescreen and Prowl, finding their faces neutral, not giving away anything. This was frustrating, them showing no signs of feeling what he felt.

"How does it not get to you guys!? Can you not feel it eating away at your spark? Ever since waking up on Earth it has gotten so much worse, that need that builds in your chest and makes your wings ache." Blue put his head in his hands, "it hurts so much but you two don't seem to feel it!" If he were human, Bluestreak would probably cry. Smokescreen was the first to move, kneeling before the upset mech, resting a hand on Blue's shoulder.

"Of course we feel it Blue, how could we not? That part of us will never go away, we just found ways to cope. Like we keep telling you to do. Find something to channel all that need and energy into." The grey mech looked up into Smokescreen's optics, searching for signs he was suffering just as much as he was.

"Smokey, no offence but you have a gambling problem and Prowl is a workaholic…" he mumbled.

"Never said they were perfect Blue, just that they work for us" Smokescreen gave him a lopsided smile. This wasn't the first time they have had this conversation, he had tried finding outlets, to the pits, he spent most his free time in the shooting range! Still, this wouldn't be the last time this conversation would happen, Prowl always called these little interventions when he felt the youngest of the trio was becoming overwhelmed.

"We've been forgotten, haven't we?" Blue said quietly, once again avoiding looking at the other mechs in the room. "It's been six million years, including the time we spent in statsis, since Praxus. Why hasn't anything happened yet?" This time it was Prowl's turn to speak up.

"We have to trust in are agreement, once the time is right we will get what is promised to us." Prowl understood Bluestreak's fears, but they had to be careful. Walls have ears around the Ark.

"Can I go back to scrubbing the brig now?" Blue whispered, he didn't want to be in this room a second longer.

"Dismissed Bluestreak, report to the brig to complete the remainder of your punishment duty." Prowl ordered. The sniper left without a word. The black and white mech rubbed his face in exhaustion. It was only the beginning of his shift and he already wanted to go back outside, back to the breeze and clear sky – No. No he couldn't be thinking like that, he needed to focus. "you may leave as well Smokescreen." But Smokescreen didn't leave.

"Jazz is right you know, we should do something together. Maybe a long drive to help with our – er – little problem" Smokescreen admitted, know Jazz had most likely shared his thoughts on the subject with Prowl already.

"Smokescreen I have far too much to deal with right now, time off doesn't happen when you run an army; do not forget who I am outside of all this." Prowl gestured to the now vacant chair.

"Of course sir," Smokescreen said mockingly, "Simply making an observation that would do us all some good, sir." The blue mech gave a lazy salute and left the office. As soon as the door shut Prowl activated the locking mechanism. He had had enough of the crew today, Primus knows how he will get through the rest of his shift. Leaning back in his chair he picked up a datapad with the Medway stocktake report on it from Ratchet. Medical supplies were proving hard to come by on this little organic planet.

0o0o0o

Jazz was so glad his shift was over, meant he could mingle with the masses instead of with a stupid stack of ops reports. Mechs over pads any day! Cube of the twins' best illegal high grade in hand (what Prowl didn't know couldn't hurt him) and good company was all he doing now! Blaster sat next to him with Mirage opposite, of course the topic of the day was 'I don't like fighting' Bluestreak turning into a brawler with no warning. It was funny and worrying how a bot who avoided conflict, as much as possible in a war, beating up mechs!

"Yeah, so long story short, lil' Blue is currently scrubbing the brig till its spotless." Jazz finished, Blaster laughed.

"Such a slave driver mech, couldn't have just let him off with a warning?" The tape deck said, downing the rest of his energon ration. "Right my fine mechs, I better get to my shift before I'm any later otherwise Prowl with have me scrubbing the brig with Blue!"

Mirage shook his helm with a smirk, "Doubt he's noticed yet, I saw Bluestreak heading to Prowl's office when I was coming here from the bridge" the spy reassured the other as Blaster stood to leave.

"Best not waste the opportunity Blue's sacrifice has given me then!" the host left the table a strolled out the rec room. Jazz smiled watching him go, was a shame they didn't have the same off-shift rotation.

"Poor mech, didn't mean to get 'im in more trouble, Prowler was not happy when Ah told him" the visored mech took a tentative sip of his high grade, "spose Prowler has a right to be extra angry over this, it has scrapped a surveillance mission he's been planning for ages" Mirage nodded quietly, he was exhausted from a very long perimeter patrol shift with Cliffjumper, that little red minibot was just too damn trigger-happy!

"Do you think Prowl will actually take your advise and do something with Blue and Smokey? All three of them need time off rotation, so twitchy the lot of them!" Mirage finally said after draining half his cube, "Surely logicbot must know there's something up if Blue of all mechs is lashing out." The noble propped his head up on his arm as examined his other hand. Jazz just shrugged, he may be third in command but this was more of a 'family' matter than 'army'. It was at this lull in the conversation did Jazz noticed Smokescreen enter the room, Jazz waved him over once the mech had grabbed his ration.

"What's up Smokey? Thought you were with Red in the monitor room this shift?" The visored mech asked, avoiding the mech's very flicky doorwings, Mirage was right, they are too twitchy!

"Oh I was but Prowl pulled me off, had to have a little intervention with Blue, you know how it goes, the whole 'I am very disappointed' routine and staring him into confessing his deepest secrets" Smokescreen said nonchalantly, "just as well really, didn't have time to grab a cube earlier"

It seemed as if Blue's outburst was doing a lot of mechs favours today. "How is Blue?, hope Prowl didn't lecture him too hard" Jazz had to know, he could blame it on his speciality in intelligence gathering but he was really just nosey.

"He's fine, embarrassed, but he will live" Smokescreen waved off the question, "Think I got through to Prowl a bit about doing something together though, was a good shout, thanks Jazz."

"No problem mech, it's what Ah do!" Jazz laughed, patting the mech on the shoulder, "got any pools up and running right now mech?"

0o0o0o

He was halfway through Ratchet's report when it happened, an innocent little ping that made him drop the datapad down onto the desk.

It couldn't be

It was

Prowl triple checked the frequency before accepting the highly encrypted message. An encryption he was very familiar with.

'It is time, bring the others and your half of the agreement'

Prowl's spark froze. Was this finally happening? A secondary message was delivered with coordinates and communication instructions.

Looks like they will be going on that long drive after all, best prepare. First things first, he thought bringing up the duty roster on his terminal, organise some time off.